Through a Nightmare, Darkly
by foggywizard
Summary: Dark Spear is a heavy burden. Frankenstein learns that firsthand. Rating isn't a joke, nor is the genre. Co-written with Sebastian Clarke over on the noblesse RP discord


"Frankenstein~" Laughter rang out. "Frankenstein~. Wake up, love."

Frankenstein awoke at the sound of a hideous voice calling out to him, he woke up, to find himself lying on a bed of skulls. He got up quickly, looking around. No? No, not again? He must've fallen asleep, "Let me out of here!" He called out, he needed to wake up, to find a way out of this nightmare.

Hands sprouted from the ground in all directions around him. "No~." Giggles, all different tones and cadences, none in sync with each other. "You're ours. We're keeping you!"

Frankenstein felt cold, as a hand brushed against his arm. He tried to bat the hands away, running further into the darkness. "Stay away from me!"

More laughter. "No." They grabbed at his ankles, his hair, whatever they could reach.

Frankenstein struggled against them, as a hand reached up from the ground tripping him. He hit the ground landing on something wet, Frankenstein got up quickly after realising it was blood. He tried desperately to free himself from the hand around his ankle, as other hands reached for him, "Leave me alone!"

"Teacher, don't you love us anymore?" A sad voice. Familiar. Twisted, and echoed a thousand times over.

Frankenstein looked around at the familiar voice. No, it couldn't be? He saw the young boy, he cared greatly for, "Tesamu?" Frankenstein smiled at the young boy and was about to embrace him when the child's face suddenly contorted. He started to rot away. No. Not rot. _Burn_, the flesh falling from his bones. Blood ran down the boy's face, his smile growing more twisted and impossibly wide with each passing second. Frankenstein jumped back in horror.

"Teacher?" His face fell, sad at that rejection as his body fell apart, nothing left of the boy but a pile of ash.

Frankenstein brought his hands to his face, "No, I'm sorry, you're not real, it wasn't my fault." He needed to get out of here, to wake up, before the spear drove him insane.

"How can you say it's not your fault when you abandoned us?" A woman's voice, coming from a figure with light red hair forced darker from the amount of blood soaked into it and her cloak. "Did you think that they would stop just because you did?"

Frankenstein looked up to see the woman, "I'm sorry, I tried to help you, I tried to help all of you, they lied to me." He cried.

A man's voice behind him laughed. "You knew they were liars and you still helped them. Let them kill us and twist us."

"I tried to stop them when I realised what they'd done, but it was too late. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He cried, tears running down his face. It wasn't his fault, the Union used his research to create this monster.

"YOU RAN AWAY!"

Frankenstein was startled at the shout, "No, you're wrong. I had to hide, I had to make sure no one else suffered."

The two began burning in purple flames, consuming them as the very ground itself turned to ash and Frankenstein began to sink into it.

"No, let go! Let me out!" He cried, as he struggled in vain, there was nothing for him to hold onto, no way for him to escape. "Stop this, please!" He begged, pleading with the spear.

Hands touched him, pinching and pulling at him. "Hate you." "Your fault." "Ran away." "Abandoned us!" All different voices. All overlapping and making it difficult to determine any specific phrase from them.

"Get away from me!" He struggled against the hands, managing to free himself from their grasp. He tried to run again but felt a hand pull at his hair. He needed to free himself from this nightmare soon.

The hands released, and he fell, landing in his home village in flames. Everyone he held precious was there on the ground, bloodied and burning. He'd lost everyone. "Your fault," the voices echoed. "They're all gone because of you."

Frankenstein watched in tears as his home, his family, everyone he knew and loved, burned, screaming in agony, "It's not real, it's not my fault."

"You think that because it didn't happen like this that it's not real?" Laughter rang out, becoming stronger and darker as the souls inside writhed, the ground rippling like water from it.

Frankenstein closed his eyes and covered his ears, "NO!", he screamed. Everything fell silent for a few seconds. He opened his eyes and looked at the ground. It was moving, as though there was something underneath it trying to get out. A mass moved towards him, at a startling speed, Frankenstein ran, trying to escape, as the laughter began again. "Stay away!"

"You're ours~. You ran away once. Abandoned us. So we won't let you again."

Frankenstein fell to the floor, as he felt a weight push him into the ground. He tried to get up, but several skeletal hands reached through the floor, holding him down, as the mass that was moving towards him, began to grow, getting taller and taller, eventually towering over him. "What do you want from me?"

"LOVE US!" "FREE US!" "DIE!" "SUFFER!" "FEED US!" "LET US DEVOUR YOU!" "GIVE US YOUR BODY!" "HELP US!" "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" "LONELY." All overlapped and none were truly distinguishable from one another.

Frankenstein covered his ears, the voices were enough to drive him mad. "STOP!"

They just got louder, enraged, and the ground undulated. He'd asked, they'd answered, and now he was upset?

Frankenstein cried out in pain, as the hands dug into his skin. This was painful, he continued to watch the pulsating ground, it was almost like a heartbeat. "Please, let me go!" He tried to struggle once more.

"NO!" All the voices screamed at once. How dare he? After everything he'd done, all he'd put them through! They would never let him go. He was theirs.

Frankenstein could feel his heart racing, he needed to get out of here. Before the Spear came up with new ways to torment him. He struggled against the hands, pinning him to the ground.

"OURS!" He belonged to them now. It was his fault that they existed. He would pay for it.

"Why me? I didn't do this to you." He cried, hoping to try and reason with the Spear.

"_Why is it only you who gets to live!?_"

Frankenstein felt fear spread through his body, his heart began beating faster. His breaths came in shallow bursts, as it darkness around him seemed to fade and crumble into darkness. He opened his eyes, looking around. He was in his room again, it had all been a nightmare. Thankfully.

_Come back._ A small whisper in his mind before the cacophony went silent.

Frankenstein shuddered at the voice, it sounded like the voice of a small child. It was true that there were a lot of child souls inside the Spear, but they weren't children anymore. They'd been twisted somehow, and now they wanted to devour him.

* * *

Another night, another dream. He woke again, inside of an empty house.

Frankenstein was confused by his surroundings. What was this place? This wasn't normally what the inside of the Spear looked like. Did someone bring him here while he was sleeping?

It was deadly silent, and slowly, it started to become apparent that he wasn't alone. People slept, here and there. Some rooms with more than others. Even a nursery with multiple cribs and infants.

Frankenstein looked at the strange figures, had they been brought here too. He wasn't sure whether he should wake them, or let them sleep. It was strange, that he hadn't noticed them when he himself woke up.

The eerie silence continued, the figures not moving. None did.

Frankenstein approached one of the figures, reaching out a hand to take their pulse. Were they even alive?

Its flesh squished. There had been no soul in the being in a long while, rotted as it was by disease.

Frankenstein looked to the other figures, they all seemed to be rotting away. He walked over to one of the cribs and looked at the small child inside. He reached down to pick them up.

Nothing. The child was just the same as the others, though not rotting. A more recent death. Starvation, because none were around to care for them.

This was horrible, who would do such a thing, to a child. He held the baby for a few moments before placing them back in the crib. He walked through the house, looking for any sign of life, everywhere was the same, bodies in varying states of decay, all the children long since dead. Would this be his fate as well?

There were no signs of life, though the sounds of laboured breathing began to come from the very walls themselves.

The walls began to move. Frankenstein placed his hand on one of the walls, it felt warm, there was a pulse underneath it, almost like a heartbeat.

A mere effect of Dark Spear. Everything was a part of them, so even the ground, the wood that made up the house, would echo their lost life. They did not seem interested in interacting with him directly at the moment.

Frankenstein felt uneasy, the dark atmosphere was frightening. He needed to find a way out. He ran through the house, looking for any windows, or doors, that may provide an escape.

Frankenstein tried desperately to open one of the windows he came across, but it was stuck fast. He went to try another, with similar results. What is wrong with this place? There had to be someone else in here, he couldn't be alone. "Hello?"

"Yes?" A small whisper, same as the one that had asked him back before.

Frankenstein turned around at the sound of the voice, but there was nothing there. "Where are you? If you keep talking, I'll be able to find you." The voice sounded like that of a young child, if there were others alive in here, he should do what he can to help them.

"Here." They were the house itself. Did Frankenstein want a different form?

The sound seemed to be coming from everywhere, "Keep talking, I'll find you." He assured, he wanted to find the child, that was calling out to him.

"But I'm here." Didn't he know that?

"I can't see you though," Frankenstein was starting to become more unnerved and unsettled. What was this place?

The walls heaved more as if they were going to start crying.

He heard the sound of children crying, he was afraid, but he could bear the thought children were suffering in this place, "Please don't cry, it'll all be alright, I won't leave without you." He said, trying to comfort the children.

"You don't love us." The voices said sadly.

"Love you? I don't know you." Frankenstein responded to the little voices.

They just sobbed harder. No one did. Not since they were alive, and even then many had not had anyone.

"Please don't cry, I won't abandon you. Just come out, where I can see you." He told them, thinking they could be frightened.

"We're _here!_" The house shook.

Frankenstein lost his balance, as the building around him shook. He understood where he was now, those weren't the voices of children. He was back inside the Dark Spear. The thought sent shivers down his spine, but still, they said they wanted to be loved. "I'm sorry," he told them, placing his hand against one of the walls, in an attempt to comfort them. If they meant him no harm, there was no need to be afraid of them.

"NO, YOU'RE NOT!" The house fell apart, sending him into blackness.

Frankenstein fell into the dark empty void, he didn't know how long he fell for, it seemed like an eternity. He was so confused by what was happening, he decided to just let himself fall further and further into the blackness.

He landed in a pit of corpses. Thousands of them. A full third of them children. "We hate you."

Frankenstein looked at the corpses, were these all the people inside the spear? "Why do you hate me? I wasn't the one who did this to you."

"IT'S YOUR FAULT WE'RE HERE!" How _dare_ he not claim responsibility for his own actions? How dare he say that this wasn't his doing when it was his research that gave people the ability to do this in the first place!? Did he think they were stupid?

"No, that research was supposed to help humanity, not destroy it. When I realised the implications of what I'd discovered, I tried to destroy it, but it was already too late." Frankenstein pleaded his case as best he could, hoping he could somehow get through to them.

"Excusesss," they hissed. "We hate you." "Suffer." "Die." "Your fault!" The cacophony began again.

"You're wrong. I would've tried to save you. If I'd known, I would've stopped them."

"YOU RAN AWAY!" How could he have known when he'd abandoned them from the start!?

"I didn't know you existed. If I'd known, I wouldn't have abandoned you." He had to make them understand.

It only enraged them more. Making excuses for himself, they didn't like it. They didn't like it one bit. He didn't _actually_ care what had become of them. He'd only taken them when he decided they were a monster to be dealt with. They screamed.

"Ah," Frankenstein covered his ears, the screams loud and piercing, coming from every direction.

The corpses began to rise, grabbing on to him, speaking with their own tongues. "Ours now." "Your fault." "How dare!" "Hate you." "_Why!?_"

Frankenstein tried to get away from the corpses, but there was nowhere for him to run, they were everywhere, "No, please, no."

They _hissed_ at him, more and more lunging to cover him. How dare he how dare he how DARE he howdarehe hoWDaREHE!?

"No! Stop! Get away! NO!" Frankenstein screamed as he woke up. It wasn't real, it was another nightmare. He sat in bed, the cold sweat dripping from him. His heart was still racing.

"Hate you. It's your fault." The voice whispered this time.

Frankenstein felt a shiver run down his spine, at the voice. He knew now that the Dark Spear wouldn't let him live. There had to be something he could do, some way to stop it from wanting to destroy him.

* * *

The smell of smoke filled the air. A fire. And he was inside the building. Familiar.

This place? He looked around there were flames everywhere. He'd left this place to burn, a long time ago. Why was he here?

A familiar voice screamed in pain from another room.

That voice. Frankenstein ran towards where the sound had come from, opening the door. "Tesamu?"

"Teacher!" His voice was panicked. He was on fire.

"Tesamu!" Frankenstein screamed, he grabbed a cloak, that hadn't been touched by the flames and wrapped it around Tesamu, in an effort to douse the flames.

The cloak caught on fire, and the room itself exploded, sending shrapnel into Tesamu's chest as Tesamu fell to the ground.

"No, Tesamu?" Frankenstein shook him, trying to wake the boy. "Tesamu, wake up." The blood poured from his wounds. Frankenstein tried to apply pressure to it to stop the bleeding, even though he knew it was already too late. "Tesamu." Tears began to fall down his face, as he cried at the loss.

The pendant gleamed at his chest, partially covered in blood. Tesamu's body faded into ash, leaving the necklace as the scene changed. A blood-covered lab, and Third and Fifth Elders looking at a void.

This place was his lab, but he didn't remember it being covered in this much blood, what had happened here. He called to the Elders, "Wait, don't go near that thing."

"We have to stop it. You're not here. It'll hurt more people." Third reached and was immediately torn apart by it, the viscera created splattering the walls even as the void sucked it in.

"No!" He turned to Fifth Elder, "Please, there's no way for you to stop this. You have to get out of here."

She shook her head. "I have to try." And the same became of her.

Frankenstein was horrified, at what became of his friends. "Why are you doing this to me?" He cried.

Another scene. A woman with a heavy cough rocked a sobbing infant with a rattling breath. "Shh. It'll be okay. Papa went to find medicine. We'll be fine."

Frankenstein looked at the woman, he didn't know who she was, was this one of the souls inside Dark Spear? "Who are you?" He asked.

No response. It was like Frankenstein wasn't even there. Slowly, the baby stopped crying, and the woman looked relieved. Several minutes later, she began panicking. The child had stopped breathing.

"Please, let me help. I'm a doctor." He said, approaching the woman to try and save the child.

Frankenstein simply phased through the woman, the scene continuing even as where he touched faded like smoke until he pulled back. She began sobbing, holding her baby close as her breath started to take the same rattling sound the infant's had had.

It was an illusion, playing out before him, but why this scene. Was there some kind of significance to it? Was there a reason for him to see this?

A black essence came from the baby, leaving and joining with a figure outside. Slowly, the woman cried herself to sleep, and her rattling breaths stopped soon after. Black essence came from her too.

Frankenstein watched the scene in confusion, what was happening? The black essence was strange, stranger still, was the figure, the essence became a part of.

The scene changed, the scenery moving even as Frankenstein stood still. A middle-aged man ran with his daughter's hand in his. A young woman, or perhaps a teenager.

Where is this place? Frankenstein wondered watching the scene play out, he tried to see what they were running from, but nothing was chasing them. He called out to them, "What's going on, what are you running from?" only to be ignored.

Men on horseback encircled the two, all of them laughing. "You thought we'd let you pagans get away?" The daughter cowered into her father's chest.

Frankenstein tried to help, by pulling at the reins on one of the horses only to fall through them. He tried to reach out and touch a figure, but it was as though there was nothing to touch but air.

They jumped off their horses, ripping the girl from her father. "For a godless heathen, she looks rather nice, doesn't she lads?" It was met with laughter, tears streaming down the girl's eyes as she cried out in fear.

"Leave her alone!" Frankenstein called to the man holding the girl and ran at him, only to fall through him, onto the ground. What was going on? Why was he seeing this?

The father tried to reach her, managing to break the hold his captor had only to be struck down, a hewing spear being sent into his back and through his chest. "Papa!" His daughter screamed. Black essence left him, joining with a nearby formless figure, watching just as Frankenstein was.

Frankenstein looked over at the figure, was he the one behind this? Frankenstein ran over to the figure, "Who are you? What do you want?"

The figure did not respond. They were part of the scene as well, unseeable by the humans. The girl was pushed into the ground, her skirts flipped and her small-clothes torn. She whimpered her fear.

Frankenstein closed his eyes, unable to watch the scene any longer, "Stop this! Stop this now!" He cried, not sure what was happening. Was he losing his mind?

The air filled with the sounds of her whimpers, slick sounds, and the men's grunts. Soon enough, another black essence came to the figure. Looking back showed the girl's body, bloodied, broken, defiled.

Frankenstein looked over at the girl, he walked over, reaching out a hand to try and help her, only for her to turn into smoke and join the figure. Tears fell down his face, as the fear began to take hold.

The scene changed again. One of the men who had harmed her, stuck injured in a war tent. His leg was gangrenous. He would not last much longer.

Frankenstein no longer tried to interact with the scenes he was being shown. Instead, he watched them with a foreboding sense of dread.

The man's heart stopped soon after the infection reached it. He died, sweating and moaning in pain. The dark essence came from him, joining the figure. The figure grew with each death and had grown significantly since the girl had passed. Souls. The essence was their soul.

Is this how the Dark Spear was created? Were these all the souls inside Dark Spear? "What do you want from me? There's nothing I can do to help you now, even if I'd wanted to."

The images dropped entirely, Dark Spear screaming at him. Can't help? _Didn't want to help!_ "This is your fault!" They'd shown him! They'd shown him how they were trapped, and he _couldn't undo it!?_

"Please," Frankenstein pleaded, "I don't know what to do. I've tried everything, if there was a way to free you all, I would." His eyes started welling up with tears.

He'd let someone have his research when he didn't even know how to undo it? "YOU LET THEM MAKE US WHEN YOU CAN'T FIX IT?!"

"I didn't let them take it, why can't you understand, they took it. I had no knowledge of what they'd done until they could no longer control what they'd created." He cried, filled with remorse at what had happened, but it was too late to fix it now.

The forms reshaped into Third and Fifth. "They know! You gave your research willingly! You didn't take it back until later!"

"I held back what I didn't want them to see, although they did have access to everything, it couldn't be helped. I'm sorry."

"Hate you." "Liar." "Your fault."

"No, please don't. I'm sorry, I'll find a way to make this right, I promise." He tried to reason with them, plead with them, bargain with them, but nothing seemed to work.

"_Devour you. We will devour you!_"

"What if I found a way, to make things right? To help you, get your revenge." It was all he had left, he was afraid, of what would happen, if he didn't try one last time.

"... Revenge?" The question sounded almost innocent, horrific as it was in the cadence and voice of ten thousand souls.

"The ones who did this to you, the ones responsible. I will help you get your revenge. Then nothing like this will ever happen to anyone else."

"_Yes._" "Only saying it to save himself." "Can still devour later." "Hate him! Should eat now!" "Make them suffer too though." Not a cacophony. Dark Spear was truly conversing with themselves.

"Let me do this one thing for you. Once we've gotten our revenge, I'll allow you to devour me, if that is still what you want."

Dark Spear went silent, considering his words. They were good. He would fix everything he'd messed up, and then they would devour him.

The silence was just as frightening as the voices. "Have you made your decision?"

They charged at him all at once, the souls surrounding him. "You will feed them to us."

Frankenstein was taken aback, but he remained calm. "Yes, I will feed all of them to you."

"_YES._" This pleased them. They would be able to make _all_ of them suffer.


End file.
